FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) – A Carroll High School grad is hitting all the right notes, literally!
After years of perfecting her sound at Sweetwater’s Rock Camp she secured a spot at one of the country’s top music schools.
Autumn Toth grew up in a house where music was everywhere.
“I really just started music, basically as soon as I was born. My parents are both musicians, they met in a band actually,” she says.
Toth found her groove early on.
“I would do garage band on my dad’s computer, and I would take the loops and make my own music, and he would burn it onto a CD for me to give to my friends.” Toth explains.
Piano, guitar, a little bit of drums – you name it, Autumn tried it.
That was even before she got to Sweetwater’s Rock Camp a couple of years ago.
“I’ve just never like been so interested in anything other than music,” she says.
At Rock Camp, young musicians form bands.
“How to write a song, what is it like to record in the studio. Maybe they’ve never performed before, and this is their first time to do that,” says Camille Zoske, Rock Camp director.
Zoske has been with the camp for eight years and has been a mentor to Autumn for many of those.
“When Autumn started, she started on keys. And she was very shy,” says Zoske.
“I definitely wasn’t much of a performer before I did rock camp,” Toth explains.
Autumn eventually found herself drawn most to what she calls ‘the backbone’ of a band: the bass.
And it just clicked. She says it just felt right – natural!
“I remember it was the scariest thing ever. But, connecting with those people on stage and the feeling of playing an original song on stage, I feel like it just helped me get over that fear,” Toth says.
A couple years and 17 weeks of rock camp later, she had to start thinking about her future.
“I just applied to so many music schools and got into all of them,” says Toth.
Including her dream school, Berklee College of Music in Boston.
“I feel like my audition went very well and I feel like I connected with those professors,” she explains.
Acceptance to Berklee was exciting enough, but the excitement didn’t end there.
“But then I opened up the letter and it had a link, and it was like, ‘check to see if you got any scholarships.’ So, I clicked on it, and it said full tuition scholarship notice. And it was like euphoria. I literally could not believe what happened, I ran to my parents,” she says
A full ride to one of the country’s most prestigious music schools.
“Just to be a part of a very small percent of people who have gone down this path, is such an honor,” Toth says.
Autumn says it wouldn’t have been possible without the bonds she built at Rock Camp.
“When I think of myself before rock camp, I was not super driven yet with music because I was still kind of alone in music. But then I did rock camp, and I learned how to perform, and I learned how to write, I actually did not sing before rock camp at all,” she says.
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